When I first read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I was awed not only by its original storytelling format, but by its unique...
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Bill English Bill English is Artistic Director and Co-Founder of San Francisco Playhouse, and in twenty years with Susi Damilano, has guided its growth from a bare-bones storefront to the second-largest theater in San Francisco.
Theatre: An Instrument Of Peace – A Note from the Empathy Gym
I have always been drawn to St. Francis’s famous prayer, “Make me an instrument of thy peace.” What a wonderful wish. To be an agent of peace....
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When the Set is the Villain – A Note from the Empathy Gym
Working for many years as a set designer, I have never imagined that scenic art could be the villain of a story. But watching The Play That Goes...
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Above and Beyond – A Note from the Empathy Gym
At a recent performance of Evita, our fabulous turntable hiccupped, stuttered, staggered and stopped. It failed, of course, at the very moment when...
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The Play That Goes Wrong: A Note from Artistic Director Bill English
Why do we laugh at a farce? Because otherwise we would have to cry. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it, “Farce is nearer tragedy than comedy...
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Evita – A note from the Artistic Director
Initially, I selected Evita for our 2023/24 Season because I knew it was going to be an election year in the U.S. and our democracy was certain to be...
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The Glass Menagerie – A Note from the Artistic Director
A high school junior who had played a supporting role in one musical but hadn’t really cared much about the experience was waiting for a bus when...
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The 39 Steps: A Note from the Artistic Director
Bill English, Artistic Director From the back seat of my parents’ Country Squire station wagon at the local drive-in theatre, I watched Cary...
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My Home on the Moon – A note from the Artistic Director
In many ways, the world premieres we produce on our mainstage make us the most excited. They are about taking risks, pushing envelopes of what...
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Guys and Dolls: A Note from the Artistic Director
Despite our deepening understanding of the subtleties and nuances of human behavior, despite a growing intellectual consensus that good and evil are...
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